This text presents the key ideas and arguments in the writings of philosophers from Plato and Aristotle, through Descartes, Locke, Hume and Kant, to modern figures like Russell and Wittgenstein, and contemporaries like Putnam and Searle. Incisive editing pares the source material down to the essentials, while commentaries and questions guide the reader towards a deeper understanding of the fundamental problems. This volume can be used with its companion, Simply Philosophy , to provide a complete introduction to the central themes and issues of Western philosophy. But it can also be used on its own, as a reader-friendly, text-based way into the heartland of the subject.